The 3rd Degree (radio series)

For other uses, see Third degree (disambiguation).
The 3rd Degree
Other names The Third Degree
Genre Quiz show
Running time 28 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Language(s) English
Home station BBC Radio 4
Host(s) Steve Punt
Creator(s) David Tyler
Director(s) David Tyler
Producer(s) David Tyler
Air dates since 21 February 2011
No. of series 5
No. of episodes 30
Opening theme "Ruby" by Kaiser Chiefs[1]
Website BBC homepage

The 3rd Degree (sometimes written as The Third Degree) is a British quiz show broadcast on BBC Radio 4, hosted by comedian Steve Punt and made by Pozzitive Productions. The series is recorded at different universities around the country, the contestants all coming from the university in which the recording takes place. One teams consists of three students and the other of three lecturers (known as the "Dons") who teach the subjects the students are studying. So far, the students have won just six episodes, drawn one episode and lost the rest.

Format

The show consists of several rounds which are as follows:[2]

Reception

Reviews for The 3rd Degree have been mixed. Iain Weaver from UKGameshows gave a positive review of the series, saying: "We're not tremendously upset by the way the teachers went through the series unbeaten, they are university lecturers, and university lecturers are meant to know an awful lot. We also liked the way Steve Punt kept the programme flowing at a decent pace, adding jokes and asides, and keeping proceedings moving along most enjoyably. He's probably helped by the audience at the student bar, who have doubtlessly taken this opportunity to have their one pint of something for the week. If there's one slight criticism we'd make, it's that the Highbrow Lowbrow round is a bit of a block in the middle of the programme. We might prefer to split the round into two parts, perhaps shifting the first immediately before the lists round. That would add a little bit more variety, and make the programme a little less imposing. That's just a minor criticism: most of what The 3rd Degree does, it does well. Given that it replaced the venerable Quote... Unquote, it didn't have a high bar, but we can see this programme running for a fair few years."[2]

Elisabeth Mahoney was negative in her summing up writing in The Guardian: "There are lots of rather lukewarm, predictable asides like this between rounds that rarely move beyond mildly distracting. You can imagine that on paper, this looked like a really swell idea: the reality on-air lacks pace and excitement, and you know the dons will win. It's a bit foggy in places, too, with a mysterious regime of bonus points available at some times and not others, and it can be hard to remember, by first name, who is on which side of the academic divide... There are a few amusing moments like this, but ultimately it's all a bit soulless and you don't really care who wins.[3]

Derek Smith in The Stage gave a mixed review saying the show was: "A kind of dysfunctional radio version of University Challenge. My question would be - what's the point? Admittedly, it's quite lively, but only vaguely funny, and hardly dynamic. Third-class degree, more like."[4]

Awards

In 2015 The 3rd Degree was nominated for the Rose d'Or in the "Radio Game Show" category.[5]

Episodes

Series 1

Episode Date broadcast University Specialist subjects Students score Dons score
1 21 February 2011 University of Southampton 20 25
2 28 February 2011 Durham University 20 45
3 7 March 2011 University of Stirling 23 23
4 14 March 2011 University of Reading 32 40
5 21 March 2011 University of Salford 18 35
6 28 March 2011 Middlesex University 27 37

Series 2

Episode Date broadcast University Specialist subjects Students score Dons score
7 12 March 2012 University of East Anglia 19 30
8 19 March 2012 Swansea University 22 34
9 26 March 2012 University of Warwick 37 26
10 2 April 2012 University of Sussex 25 35
11 9 April 2012 Queen Mary, University of London 22 35
12 16 April 2012 University of Northampton 25 35

Series 3

Episode Date broadcast University Specialist subjects Students score Dons score
13 25 March 2013 Anglia Ruskin University 28 35
14 1 April 2013 University of Exeter 25 22
15 8 April 2013 University of Edinburgh
  • Biosciences
  • History of art
  • International relations
 29 36
16 15 April 2013 University of Leicester 33 38
17 22 April 2013 Bath Spa University 22 24
18 29 April 2013 University of Leeds 29 27

Series 4

Episode Date broadcast University Specialist subjects Students score Dons score
19 7 April 2014 University of Bristol 30 40
20 14 April 2014 University of Kent 32 31
21 21 April 2014 University of Bedfordshire 23 31
22 28 April 2014 Aberystwyth University 19 29
23 5 May 2014 University of Nottingham 20 17
24 12 May 2014 University of Birmingham 34 25

Series 5

Episode Date broadcast University Specialist subjects Students score Dons score
1 27 April 2015 Cardiff University 31 29
2 9 May 2015[fn 1] University of Manchester
  • Biology
  • American studies
  • Medicine
 22 36
3 11 May 2015 University of Essex 31 41
4 18 May 2015 De Montfort University 30 28
5 25 May 2015 Aston University
  • Law
  • Psychology
  • Computer science
 22 38
6 1 June 2015 University of Surrey 25 35

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Episode delayed due to coverage of the 2015 BBC Food and Farming Awards.

References

  1. ↑ "The 3rd Degree". UKGameshows. Retrieved 22 March 2012.
  2. 1 2 3 Weaver, Iain (8 May 2011). "Weaver's Week 2011-05-08". UKGameshows. Retrieved 22 March 2012.
  3. ↑ Mahoney, Elisabeth (1 March 2011). "Radio review: The Third Degree". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 March 2012.
  4. ↑ Smith, Derek (18 February 2011). "Radio review - light programme". The Stage. Retrieved 22 March 2012.
  5. ↑ "Rose d'Or nominees announced with more master class speakers". Rose d'Or. 9 November 2015. Retrieved 10 November 2015.

External links

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